


One Story's Ending...

by ellipsisthegreat



Series: Bedtime Story!Verse [3]
Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-11
Updated: 2010-12-11
Packaged: 2017-10-13 15:32:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/138860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellipsisthegreat/pseuds/ellipsisthegreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A continuation of 'The Adventures of Dr. Bones and Jamie' and 'The Doctor's Daughter,' wherein the crew has a sleepover. No, really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Story's Ending...

_**DISCLAIMER** : Star Trek and everything affiliated with it belongs to Gene Roddenberry, JJ Abrams, and all of the other awesome people who own it. All I own is the plot…_

"Jim…why do you look like a rainbow vomited on your face?"

"Aw, Bones, you know just what to say." Jim flutters his eyelashes at Bones, who shudders just a little.

"Well?"

"Your daughter is quite the aspiring makeup artist." Jim replies. "She's in the living room with everyone else, waiting for you to get off shift."

Bones scowls when a burst of laughter sounds from the living room. " _Everyone_?" He asks. Usually, it's just one or two people at a time—they rarely all have time off at once. The people who miss it watch a holovid that Bones hadn't realized was being made until three or four sessions in.

"The bridge crew." Jim amends hastily. "No one else knows your dirty little secret, promise."

Bones grunts. "Right." He says, heading to the living room with Jim trailing behind him. "Holy Christ on a cracker."

Joanna giggles as she looks up at him from her seat on the floor in front of Uhura, who is braiding her hair. "Hi, Daddy!"

"Hey, baby." He says, a small smile coming to his face. Then he lets out a dramatic yawn. "I'm awful tired, tonight. I don't know if I can finish the story."

Joanna lets out an enraged shriek. "No! Daddy, you _have_ to finish it! You've been dragging it out for, like, _ever_!"

"It has taken you approximately one week and three days, so far, Doctor." Spock confirms. "And you have continued to tell it following shifts that were decidedly busier than today's."

"Spoilsports." Bones says. "Everybody get comfy, then—and Jim, for God's sake, wash your face. She only does your makeup like that because you let her get away with it."

Joanna giggles, but beams up at Jim innocently when he gives her a shocked look. Pouting, he leaves the room, returning a few moments later with a clean face and taking a seat as far away from Joanna as possible.

"Where'd I leave off last time?" Bones asks as he sets his bag down and shrugs off his lab coat.

"Jamie and Mr. Kingsley just snuck onboard the _Wisdom Giver_!" Joanna says, excited already.

Bones hums thoughtfully, running a hand through his hair and messing it up a little. Then his voice drops into what Jim calls his 'storytelling voice' as he begins, "When they climb aboard the _Wisdom Giver_ , Jamie and Mr. Kingsley are immediately surrounded by pirates!"

Joanna gasps, the sound echoed by a few other members of the bridge crew (namely Jim and Chekov).

"They find shelter behind some barrels, picking off the attacking pirates with more luck than anything else. 'I'll cover you, go!' Jamie says, and Mr. Kingsley runs towards one of the fallen crewmembers. Using the secret voodoo magic of his people, Mr. Kingsley learns the location of the bomb that the evil Captain Oren is about to plant in the capital city and set off. Jamie shoots the last of the pirates, crouching down next to him. They head to the small sailboat, the _Jellyfish_ , that is latched on to the side of the boat. 'The likelihood of us actually pulling this off is quite low.' Mr. Kingsley says, looking up at Jamie from the water, but Jamie just laughs. 'It'll work, Kingsley.' 'If it doesn't.' Mr. Kingsley insists. 'Tell Nila—' 'Tell her yourself. It's going to work, just trust me!' Jamie cuts him off, and then leaves before the other man can try again. Shaking his head, Kingsley cuts the _Jellyfish_ loose and sails off into the night."

"If you stop now, the likelihood of you surviving the night is zero percent." Uhura says, having caught on to Bones' favorite stopping points by now.

Bones waves her off. "Jamie is grabbed by the scruff of his neck just as the _Jellyfish_ breaks free. It is Oren's first mate, who punches Jamie, continuing to attack before Jamie can regain his bearings. He grabs Jamie's neck, lifting him high above his head—above the choppy waters below that will serve as the man's grave. But he notices that, against all odds, Jamie…is _smirking_."

"This is the best part!" Joanna whispers, eyes wide.

"'What are you smirking at, boy?' The first mate demands angrily. Jamie tries to answer, but the hand on his throat garbles his words. The first mate loosens his grip slightly, bringing Jamie a little closer to his face. 'What was that?' 'I said,' Jamie forces out, 'I've got your gun.' The first mate looks down just in time to see Jamie pull the trigger. He gasps, dropping Jamie and clutching at the wound." And Bones reenacts it, looking completely aghast. "Jamie, who has landed precariously on the handrail, jumps down and pushes the first mate overboard. Then he sets loose one of the lifeboats, jumping in and paddling as fast as he can away from the ship."

"And then? _And then_?" Chekov asks.

"The _Crusader_ appears suddenly from behind an outcropping of rocks, shooting everything it's got at the _Wisdom Giver_ and distracting its crew long enough for Mr. Kingsley to turn the _Jellyfish_ around, gathering enough momentum that the impact of it hitting the _Wisdom Giver_ will set off the bomb Oren was going to use on the capital city—which is in the _Jellyfish_! He jumps free at the last possible moment, and Jamie scoops him into the lifeboat, the two of them now paddling for their lives!" It is probably a testament to how into the story everyone is that they don't laugh at the sight of Bones on the floor, pretending to paddle.

"And then the _Wisdom Giver_ is blown to smithereens!" Joanna says, jumping up from her seat with a rowdy cheer.

"But not before Jamie offers Oren and his crew one last chance at surrendering." Bones says, grabbing her and pulling her into his lap.

"Yeah, but he says no." Joanna scoffs. "So it's pointless! Why do you always have to put that part in?"

"Well it is if you put it like that." He says. "But that's not the reason I tell it. I tell it because it shows the difference between Jamie and Mr. Kingsley, and Captain Oren."

She frowns. "What difference?"

"Captain Oren wanted revenge, and he was willing to do whatever it took to get it." Bones says. "But Jamie and Mr. Kingsley…even though they hated Oren more than anyone else, and they wanted revenge for all of the lives he ruined…they would still have shown mercy if he'd asked for it. That's what makes them the good guys. And that's why I always put that part in."

"Yeah, okay." She says, wrinkling her nose. "So then…they lived happily ever after?"

"Yep. Happily ever after." He says, kissing the top of her head. "Now, time for bed, punkie doodle."

" _Dad_ , you can't call me punkie doodle in front of everyone!" She protests, putting her face in her hands.

"You're my baby girl; it's part of my job as your dad to embarrass you." He says. "It's in the 'Unwritten Guide to Being a Daddy'."

She wrinkles her nose at him. "You're silly, Daddy."

"And _you_ are trying to get out of going to bed." He says. "Now up, baby girl, it's bedtime."

"Can't I stay up for just a _little_ bit longer?" She juts her bottom lip out.

"Yeah, c'mon, Bones." Jim says. "It's not like she's got school tomorrow, or something. And you're on Alpha shift, so she might as well sleep in."

And here it comes. The three of them have been dancing this dance since Joanna started referring to Jim as her uncle—Bones tries to send her to bed, Jim steps up in her defense, and between the two of them Bones always gives in. Yeah, that's his 'I'm giving in' sigh; they have come to realize over the course of Joanna's visit that the good doctor—cantankerous as he acts—is really a total sop. Especially in regards to his daughter. And Jim, surprisingly enough.

"Fine, fine." Bones says. "But that means I can't make breakfast tomorrow."

"Breakfast?" Joanna perks up.

"Well, I went out and bought all the ingredients for chocolate chip pancakes—I even found real maple syrup—but you keep stayin' up late, so I haven't gotten the chance to make 'em for you before I have to go on shift." Bones' tone is _just_ shy of a whine. "But I'm a doctor, not a gourmet chef, so maybe it's—"

"NighteveryoneI'mgoingtobednowloveyouDaddy!" Joanna kisses Bones' cheek, then scrambles out of his lap and to her room.

The room is quiet for a moment before Bones snickers.

"Bones?" Jim asks.

"Gets her every time." Bones says, looking inordinately pleased with himself. "I let her stay up late for a couple of nights, then tell her I've been wanting to make her breakfast. After that it's at least a month before she starts askin' to stay up late again, because she thinks I'm gonna keep makin' her breakfast." A pause. "I do, sometimes."

"That's…probably not the best way to go about getting her to go to bed on time, Doctor." Uhura says.

"Probably not, but it works." Bones shrugs. "Besides, I don't get to see her very often, and never when she's got school or something, so I don't think it does her any harm."

"I believe you are…spoiling her." Spock says.

"She's my only baby girl." Bones says. "It's my job to spoil her absolutely rotten."

Spock frowns. "I do not understand your reasoning, Doctor."

Bones rolls his eyes. "You'll understand when you've got kids of your own."

"Dude, people _always_ say that." Sulu scoffs.

"Just like they say 'you'll understand when you're older.'" Chekov adds with a wrinkle of his nose.

Bones frowns. "Look, it's not…" He sighs, running a hand through his hair. "Parenthood isn't something you can just… _explain_. I mean, I could talk about it 'til my face turns blue, but…there are just some things in the world that you have to experience to understand. It's not that you're stupid or too young or any of that, but…there's something about holding your child for the first time that's…you just can't put a feeling like that into words."

"Why, Bones, I think you might have just gotten really sappy on us." Jim says, squinting at Bones like he's never seen him before.

Bones' normal glare returns full-force, but is broken when he blinks and cocks his head to one side as if he has realized or remembered something.

"Doctor?" Uhura asks.

"Hold that thought." He says, holding a finger up as he stands and goes over to the closed door that leads to Joanna's room. "Jojo, you asleep?"

The question is immediately followed by an exaggerated snore that makes Bones chuckle.

"Go to _sleep_ , Joanna." He says, then rolls his eyes at the giggle that leaks from inside the room. Then he turns and goes to a shelf, shuffling around for a moment before pulling out what looks like an old holovid, wiping it off on his pants. When he sees their curious expressions, he says (with a rather impish glint in his eyes that they aren't used to seeing), "I can't _tell_ you, but I can _show_ you."

"Show us?" Chekov asks.

"What it's like to hold your kid for the first time." He says, holding up the holovid, then slips it into the slot that connects to the view screen and tells the computer to play.

"We get to see baby Joanna?" Jim asks, like a kid at Christmas.

"And me being sappy as shit." Bones says as he flops down on the couch. "Computer, play."

" _Ouch, shit!" A woman with long blonde hair curses, holding one hand in the other, a cutting board and knife on a countertop telling them she had cut herself while chopping what looked like onions._

"Wrong one." Bones says, but Jim claps a hand over his mouth before he can tell the computer to go to a different scene, because a little boy with messy shoulder-length brown hair has entered the room wearing a far-too-big lab coat and carrying what looks like a first-aid kit.

" _Mommy?" The boy—who looks five or six—asks, brown eyes going wide at the sight of her. "Are you okay?"_

" _I cut myself." The woman says with an obviously exaggerated pout, holding her hand out for the boy to inspect. They can see a tiny bit of smeared blood on her finger, a drop falling to the floor._

" _Oh, no!" The boy says, slapping a hand to his cheek. He is genuinely worried, and puts the first-aid kit down, opening it and rummaging through it with a look of somber concentration on his face. With an air of authority, he pulls out a cotton ball and a bottle of antiseptic, pouring the latter onto the former before applying it to her finger with gentle care. Then, one hand holding the cotton ball in place, he reaches into the kit again and pulls out a Band-Aid, opening it with his mouth and then putting the cotton ball on the ground and using both hands to put the Band-Aid in place. He surveys his work with a critical eye for just a moment, turning her hand this way and that._

" _What's your diagnosis, Doctor?" The woman asks._

 _The boy purses his lips together and wags his finger at her. "You should be more careful, ma'am. You cut yourself."_

" _Oh, yes, Doctor, I will." She says._

" _You'll be okay, now, but if it gets pink and puffy then you got a 'fection and you gotta go to a hops'tal, okay?"_

 _She laughs and grabs him, hugging him close to her chest. "Why do I have to go to a hospital when I've got the best little doctor in the world right here at home with me?"_

" _Mommy, I'm serious!" He protests, giggling._

 _She kisses his cheek. "I know, and I'll go to the hospital if it gets infected, okay? Thank you **ever** so much for your help, Doctor Leonard." Then she juts her bottom lip out and says, "Now, to finish the treatment, will you kiss it better?"_

 _He glares at her suspiciously for a moment from the corner of his eye, then grabs her hand and kisses the wounded finger._

" _All better." She says, hugging him again. "Now go outside and play while I finish making dinner."_

" _Don't cut yourself again." He says sternly, then kisses her cheek, closes the first-aid kit, and runs out of the room._

The picture on screen freezes, then returns to the menu.

"Oh my god, Bones, you were the cutest fucking kid in the history of ever." Jim squeals— _squeals_ —as everyone else in the room (besides possibly Spock) tries not to mirror his reaction.

Bones snorts.

"No, seriously." Jim says. "A-fucking-dorable."

"So you always wanted to be a doctor?" Chekov asks.

"Pretty much." Bones says. "My parents were both doctors, so I guess it runs in the family. Anyhow, that's not the one I wanted you guys to see. Computer, show the entry for August 7th, 2252."

 _The man whose face shows up on the screen does and doesn't belong to Bones. That is to say, he **looks** like Bones, with the same brown eyes and other facial features, but he's **smiling**. And his hair is shorter and **messy** ; there's no part to it at all. It's **spiked** , even._

" _So in approximately five minutes I'm going to be the proud father of a little girl—Joanna Lynn McCoy." The man who is and isn't Bones says._

 _The woman from the last vid, looking older but no less happy, appears in a corner of the screen. "And he would be in there right now watching it happen, but he's the only doctor in the world who would actually **swoon** at the sight of an epidural."_

" _I didn't_ _ **swoon**_ _, Mama, I_ _ **fainted**_ _." Not-Bones blushes. "And it's not something that's ever happened to me before, okay? That needle was the size of my forearm."_

" _Tsk." She says. "Sees trauma victims every day and can't handle the sight of a good old fashioned needle."_

" _They should just use hyposprays."_

" _It's a little country hospital, Leonard, and syringes are cheaper than hyposprays."_

" _Medieval torture devices is what they are."_

" _Yes, well, if_ _ **your**_ _little brat wasn't so dead set on popping out right now, and if_ _ **your**_ _wife had the balls to give birth naturally, this wouldn't be a problem." She laughs._

 _He starts to say something, but then—_

" _Dr. McCoy?" A doctor steps out of the delivery room._

" _Yes?" Not-Bones and the woman (his mother) stand up, speaking in unison._

 _The doctor blinks. "_ **Mr.** McCoy. She's a perfectly healthy little girl, and her mother is fine. You can come see them, now."

 _Not-Bones' mother pats his hand when he gives her a wide-eyed look, then pushes him toward the door. He stumbles a little, but quickly catches himself and allows the doctor to usher him inside._

 _The former Mrs. Bones is lying in the bed, cradling a pink blanket in her arms. She looks up—sweaty and red-eyed and obviously exhausted—and smiles at not-Bones._

" _Isn't she beautiful, Len?" She asks, tilting her arms so that they can see the tiny little face that is peeking out from within the blanket. "Say hi to Daddy, Joanna."_

 _Not-Bones' eyes have gotten even wider, as he inches closer to the bed, like he thinks sudden movements are going to cause an explosion or something._

" _Come hold her." Ex-wife—Jocelyn, wasn't it?—says._

" _Okay." Not-Bones' voice shakes as he finally reaches the bed, leaning down and letting Jocelyn transfer her tiny charge into his arms. Straightening, an expression comes to his face that they can't quite identify; a mix between joy, awe, and a number of other emotions. And even though they had all guessed that this is what he'd wanted to show them, they can suddenly understand, to some extent, what Bones had been talking about the whole time. "Hey there, Joanna. Welcome to the world."_

 _The baby yawns and makes a gurgling noise, waving her little arms._

" _She's perfect, Joss." Not-Bones leans down and kisses his wife's forehead. "You did so good."_

" _Your wife needs to get to sleep, now, Dr. McCoy." The doctor from earlier says. "And I need to take the baby."_

" _Of course." Not-Bones says, although there is a wistful frown on his face as he hands the baby over to the doctor and the screen goes black._

"Computer, stop transmission." Bones says. "Lights at a hundred percent."

"How old were you, then? You look so young." Uhura says.

"Oh, I was…" Bones thinks for a moment. "Twenty…four? Yeah, I'd have been twenty-four, and Jocelyn was twenty-three. And we'd been married for…geez, nearly four years, by then." He shakes his head. "It seems like a long time ago."

"Holy shit, Bones, you must've gotten married right out of high school." Jim says with a jolt. "You don't seem the type."

Bones gives him a strange look. "The fuck are you talking about? I got married three weeks after I graduated from Ole Miss—that's _med_ school, kid. Joss had just graduated from high school, sure, but I was long done with it."

"Really?" Chekov asks.

"Yeah. Shit, Chekov, I was already out of undergraduate school when I was your age." He blinks at them when he sees that they're staring. "What, you don't believe me? Just because I'm older than all of you doesn't mean—"

"I don't know about everyone else, but I hadn't really thought about it before, Doctor." Sulu says. "I mean, I knew you were a doctor before you joined Starfleet, but the rest of us joined Starfleet right out of high school—well, except for the captain, but everyone knows he just pretends to be stupid."

"Hey." Jim frowns, but he's obviously just pretending to be insulted.

Bones rolls his eyes. "Well, here's the short version—I graduated from high school at fourteen, from undergraduate school at seventeen, and med school at twenty. Got married a few weeks after that, got a job at a small hospital in the town next to my hometown, then opened my own practice the year after Joanna was born. Two years later Joss asked for a divorce, and when the trials were finally over the next year I left, ended up in Iowa, and joined Starfleet." He spreads his arms wide in a decidedly sarcastic manner. "And here I am."

"Doctor." Spock speaks slowly after a thoughtful silence has settled over the room. "I…admit that I do not understand overly much about human emotions and motivations, and yet…even so, I cannot think that a mere two years could take you from that," his eyes flicker to the blank screen, "to the bitter divorce through which you obviously went."

Bones gets a faraway look in his eyes for a moment, then shakes his head, sighs, and rubs his left ring finger with his right hand.

"You don't have to talk about it, Doctor." Uhura says, giving Spock a disapproving frown.

"Nah, I don't mind." Bones says. "It's not…I know we look like a happy couple in that holovid, but the truth is we'd been having trouble for a while. We had Joanna because we thought having a kid would…I don't know, fix that, somehow. But after she was born and I opened my clinic, things just…spiraled out of control, and then we were fighting all the time and…yeah, okay, she had an affair. But I can't say I wasn't having one, even if it was with my job instead of a person. In the end, staying together was more detrimental to Joanna than separating was, so we got a divorce. It was ugly, and we both said things we can never take back, and…maybe we can be friends now that we've both moved on, but…we can never go back to what we were." He breathes out sharply through his nose. "We got married too young, and being out in the real world changed the both of us, and she wanted me to stay the fifteen year old kid she fell in love with and I guess I just don't have a big enough heart to love my daughter and my job _and_ someone else—not the way a man is supposed to love his wife—and that wasn't fair to her. She deserved a lot better than me."

"There's no one out there better than you, Bones." Jim says, and they can tell he means it even if they aren't sure why he thinks he knows.

"No better doctor, maybe." Bones mutters, then clears his throat loudly and stands up. "Let me make sure Joanna's asleep, then I have a favor to ask."

"Okay." Jim blinks, exchanging a glance with the others as Bones trudges into Joanna's room.

"Has the doctor ever asked any of you guys for a favor?" Sulu asks. "Because he's never asked me. It's kind of…creepy."

"He asks me for favors all the time." Jim says brightly.

"Telling you not to get yourself killed doesn't count." Uhura says, rolling her eyes when Jim's face falls comically. "Honestly."

"Yeah, well, screw you." Jim mutters, then lets out a loud exclamation when a couch pillow hits him in the face.

"Don't be an infant, Jim." Bones says, already holding up another pillow, which he'd gotten from the love seat upon which Chekov and Sulu were situated.

" _Captain_ Infant, to you." Jim says, blowing a raspberry at him.

Bones throws the other pillow, but Jim dodges it. Then he sits back down, leaning forward so that his arms are resting on his legs. "So…here's the thing…"

"Oh, yeah! Favor!" Jim says, as if he's forgotten in the past minute even though they're (mostly) sure he hasn't.

"Goddammit, Jim." Bones gives his self-proclaimed best friend a disapproving look.

"Oh, just ask for the favor. You _never_ ask for favors." Jim says. "Except for me not to kill myself, but Uhura says that doesn't count."

"God help me." Bones mutters, then sighs, runs a hand over his face, and says, "The thing is…Joanna's birthday is the week after she goes home…"

(And the rest is a story for another night…)

 _A/N: 8DDD So I think the next story will be the last in this little 'series.' But I guess we'll see. My brain works in mysterious ways. ;)_


End file.
